David Hennessey

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A photo of David Hennessey, courtesy of the Tulane University's Louisiana Collection.
A photo of David Hennessey, courtesy of the Tulane University's Louisiana Collection.

David C. Hennessey (??-1890) was the police chief of New Orleans, Louisiana from 1888 until his death.

His death, supposedly at the hands of Italian immigrants, but more probably from a political rival, was the catalyst of a large anti-Italian lynching in New Orleans.

While investigating the barrel murder of an Italian immigrant, he discovered the existence of a secret society operating in New Orleans, the Mafia. After collecting enough evidence to go public, but shortly before doing so, he was assassinated on October 15, 1890, execution-style. However historians dispute this explanation. Humbert S. Nelli concluded that Hennessey as chief of police was involved in some way regulating organized crime activity. Nelli also concluded that his execution might have been a way to frame Italian Americans. Hennessy was awake in the hospital for several hours after the shooting, and spoke to friends, but did not name shooters. The next day complications set in, he took turn for worse and died. A rumor spread that his dying words were "Dagos did it", dago being an insulting slur for Italians.

This killing became the first widely publicized Mafia incident in the United States, and resulted in hundreds of baseless arrests of newly arrived Italian immigrants and a major trial in 1891 in New Orleans in which nineteen people were indicted. Rumors about the Sicilian "Mafia" trying to take over New Orleans spread throughout the city, adding to the extreme prejudice and fear of the poor Italian immigrants that many native United States citizens had already developed.

Rioters breaking in to parish prison.
Rioters breaking in to parish prison.

A large riot occurred after those indicted were acquitted, with a mob storming the jailhouse and lynching the accused Italians, along with ten other Italians, none of whom had been involved in the case[1]. The lynch mob brutally mutilated the Italian immigrants, apparently shouting, "Hang the dagos!" According to witnesses, the "cheers were deafening." Afterwards, a local paper recorded the incident, proclaiming "The little jail was crowded with Sicilians, whose low, receding foreheads, repulsive countenances and slovenly attire proclaimed their brutal nature."

The Italians lynched were not involved in any organized crime and a significant part of the motivation for attacking them was a racial and ethnic one. The death of Hennessey became a rallying cry for law enforcement and nativists to stop the immigration of Italians into America. For decades after, New Orleans children of other ethnicities would often taunt Italian Americans with the phrase, "Who kill-a the Chief?"

[edit] Notes and references

  • Humbert S. Nelli, “The Hennessy Murder and the Mafia in New Orleans.” Italian Quarterly 1975 19(75-76): 77-95.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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